7.5.07

MANIC MONDAY - I WILL SURVIVE

Pookie also dances on the table

When I read the word for Manic Monday I immediatly thought of a young man whose brain had been nearly distroyed by drug abuse.

One of my friends daughter was hospitalized for anorexia. The day where my friend was allowed to visit her, she asked me to come with her, because she hadn't the courage to go there alone and facing her skeleton like daughter. She was full of reproaches for herself and felt so guilty that she didn't know what to say to her daughter and she thought with me being there it would be less stressful.

When we arrived it was visitor day and the sick girls and boys were all in a big room to wait for their families or friends. There were all main deseases represented. Depressions, Anorexia, boulimia and very heavy drug addicts and all of them hoped to survive or not.

The first thing I noticed in this room was a young man of around 20 who had climbed on a table, singing the song "I will survive" with all his heart and danced. On the table was also a big birthday cake with candles and at least 8 people sat around.
Of course I became curious about what happened there and asked. A woman told me the very sad story of this young man. His problem was to be too intelligent and he had an IQ far above the average. Nobody had noticed that and as school became so boring for him because he learned too fast, he had started with a few coke lines, which had been offered to him probably during parties. From there it got worse more and more until he reached the state of heroin and crack and everything what could get him out of his boring world. Until the day he almost died from an overdose. Hospitalized here, he suddenly realized that he wanted to survive and start a cure.

In some way he was very lucky that his parents never gave up on him and tried to get him out of this hell by all means. Later on another visit I had the occasion to discuss with him and I was really amazed about the general knowledge of everything he had in litterature, painting, science etc. But he wasn't healed yet. In the middle of a conversation he just would walk away, start singing or doing something else. He was such a friendly and loveable guy.

And when I think about him dancing and singing on this table, with his whole family around, I sincerely hope that he had survived.

Each time I hear this song I see him dancing with such joy and hope for a new life.

At least those kids are accepting help...and they will survive by doing so! our friends' then 19-yrs-old son was only 45kg/110 pounds and he was 1,75m by the time he had to be hospitalized and finally admitted he had a problem... his parents are the nicest, kindest people and of course they thought it was all their own fault. Terrible thing to experience...the young guy is doing fine now but the parents tell me he will remain anorexic for life (it's sort of like alcoholism I guess), he behaves that way whenever he is under stress...Enjoyed your music links, Gattina, I had seen the second one and I thing it is so much fun, there is no point in finding it offensive. It's just plain humor, as you said it. Happy monday! Deutschland hatte super Wetter am Wochenende, unglaublich sonning und warm :)

How wonderful that he has finally decided that life is precious. I love that song! It can make anyone dance.Sorry for your friend's daughter. I fear with these starving models setting examples and everyone wanting to be looking like a waif that it annerexia will only get worse. My niece in kindergarten already sees people as skinny or fat! She says my skinny friends or her fat friends. She wants to be skinny! My sister works and works with her but society put this in these children's heads! It disgusts me. I pray that a new trend goes for healthy not skeletal.

About Me

I love painting, writing, travelling and photography. My favorit models are my four cats which I observe with fun and humor. I am German, married to an Italian and we live in Waterloo (15 km from Brussels) / Belgium since many years. Waterloo is a famous place to many tourists, because Napoleon lost his battle here against Wellington and other European countries.